Palaces, manors and town halls in Sweden

The House of Nobility (Riddarhuset, “the House of Knights”) was built in 1641-1672 as a chamber of Estates of the Realm, and as such, a Swedish equivalent to the British House of Lords. After 1866, when the Riksdag of the Estates was replaced by the new parliament, the Swedish House of Nobility served as a quasi-official representation of the Swedish nobility, regulated by the Swedish government. Since 2003, i ...

The Stockholm Palace (Kungliga Slottet) is the official residence and major royal palace of the Swedish monarch. The offices of the monarch and the other members of the Swedish Royal Family as well as the offices of the Royal Court of Sweden are located there. The palace is used for representative purposes by the King whilst performing his duties as the head of state.
The first building on this site was a fortress with a ...

Rosendal Palace (Rosendals slott) is a Swedish royal pavilion located at the Djurgården, an island in central Stockholm. It was built between 1823 and 1827 for King Karl XIV Johan, the first Bernadotte King of Sweden. It was intended as an escape from the formalities of court life at the Royal Palace.
Rosendal Palace was largely designed by Fredrik Blom, one of the leading architects of the time, who received a roy ...

The University Main Building was built in the 1880s. Parliament had allocated funding, and King Oscar II laid the cornerstone in pouring rain on a spring day in 1879. The site was formerly occupied by a large academic riding building, which was torn down for the new edifice. On May 17, 1887 the building was inaugurated at a festive ceremony. The architect was Herman Teodor Holmgren.
What he created was a grand and statel ...

Umeå City Hall (Umeå rådhus) was built after the great fire, which damaged the city in 1888. It was completed in 1890. The architect was Fredrik Olaus Lindström and the hall is inspired by Dutch Renaissance.

Boo fideikommiss (estate in tail) was founded in 1735. The first owner was one of the generals of the Swedish king Charles XII, baron H. J. Hamilton. After imprisonment in Russia he took up residence at Boo. Thereafter the estate has been inherited within the family Hamilton af Hageby. The current Boo Castle was built to the grounds of older manor house in 1874-1882. The Neo-Gothic building was designed by Johan Fredrik & ...

Gustav III's Pavilion is a royal pavilion at the Haga Park. As a highlight in Swedish art history, the Pavilion is a fine example of the European neoclassicism of the late 18th century in Northern Europe. The pavilion was built in 1787 by the architect Olof Tempelman with detailed instructions from King Gustav III who was highly personally involved in the project, producing some basic designs himself and suggesting change ...

Tessin Palace is a baroque town house located in Gamla Stan, the old town in central Stockholm. The mansion was constructed between 1694 and 1700 by architect Nicodemus Tessin the Younger. The building was inherited by Tessin"s son Carl Gustaf Tessin who had to sell it in 1750 for financial reasons. The palace later became property of the crown and has been used as residence for the Over Governor and later Governor o ...

Kristineberg Palace in Kungsholmen was built around 1750 for the businessman R. Schröder. The palace was surrounded by parks and the property included a great deal of the surrounding land. In 1864 the property was bought by the Swedish Freemasonry and additional construction on the palace was made. Stockholm City bought the land in 1921 and started building the Kristineberg district, and today part of the palace is u ...

Carolina Rediviva is the main building of the Uppsala University Library in Uppsala, Sweden. The building was begun in 1820 and completed in 1841. The original architect was Carl Fredrik Sundvall. Later additions to the building have been designed by Axel Johan Anderberg and Peter Celsing. The name, literally "Carolina Revived", was given in remembrance of the old Academia Carolina building, which had functioned as univer ...

Solliden Palace was completed in 1906. The Italian-style country house was designed by Torben Grut. Today it is owned by King Carl XVI Gustav of Sweden and used as the royal summer residence. Solliden palace is open to the public from May to September.

The guest house in Stora Herrestad is one of the oldest in Scania, and dates back to the 1600s. The old stable, which now serves as our banquet room, was used by travellers on their long journeys and the old main building, where the restaurant is now located, was the courthouse.
In the 1780s the old main building was destroyed by fire, but was then rebuilt as an inn during the 1800s. The courthouse was relocated across t ...

Ulriksdal Palace is a royal palace situated on the banks of the Edsviken in the National City Park. It was originally called Jakobsdal after its owner Jacob De la Gardie, who had it built by architect Hans Jacob Kristler in 1643-1645 as a country retreat. He later passed on to his son, Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie, from whom it was purchased in 1669 by Queen Hedvig Eleonora. The present design is mainly the work of archite ...

Nääs Castle is a 17th century mansion near Gothenburg, Sweden. In the later half of the 19th century Nääs became world renowned through its Crafts College and for more than 50 years it was regarded as 'Swedens window to the world'.
According to legend, King Kristian II built a castle for hunting parties at Näs. The first historical evidence on Nääs Estate however, derives from record da ...

Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde is a museum located on Djurgården in central Stockholm. It was the former home of the Swedish Prince Eugen, who discovered the place in 1892, when he rented a house there for a few days. Seven years later he bought the premises and had a new house designed by the architect Ferdinand Boberg, who also designed Rosenbad (the Prime Minister"s Office and the Government Chancellery), and erecte ...

Tjolöholm Castle is a country house built 1898-1904. It is located on a peninsula in the Kungsbacka Fjord on the Kattegat coast. Tjoloholm Castle was designed in the Arts and Crafts style by architect Lars Israel Wahlmann. In 2010, Danish film director Lars Von Trier shot the exterior scenes of the film Melancholia at the castle.

The Hallwyl Palace was built 1893-1898 to the design of Isak Gustaf Clason for Count Walther von Hallwyl and his wife Wilhelmina. It was created to accommodate the office of the count and the extensive art collection of the countess. While the exterior of the building and the court is historical in style — borrowing architectonic elements from medieval prototypes and Renaissance Venice — it was technically utterly mod ...

Sofiero Castle was one of the Swedish royal family's country mansions. It was originally a Scanian farm called Skabelycke, bought in 1864 by Crown Prince Oscar of Sweden and his wife Sophia of Nassau. The first one-story palace was completed in 1865. It was expanded to its current size between 1874 and 1876, after crown prince Oscar had been crowned king Oscar II of Sweden and Norway.
In 1905, Oscar II's grandchild Princ ...

The old Kronhuset (the Crown House) behind the Gustav Adolf Square is one of the oldest buildings in Gothenburg. It was built in 1642-1654 as a storehouse for military uniforms and other military equipment. Now it is a living craft center in historic buildings.
Around Kronhuset is Kronhusbodarna (the Crown House Sheds).The west wing served as carriage storage and warehouse, and was built around 1750 after the previous wo ...

Bonde Palace (Bondeska palatset) is located between the House of Knights (Riddarhuset) and the Chancellery House (Kanslihuset). It is, arguably, the most prominent monument of the era of the Swedish Empire (1611–1718), originally design by Nicodemus Tessin the Elder and Jean De la Vallée in 1662-1667 as the private residence of the Lord High Treasurer Gustaf Bonde (1620–1667) it still bears his name, wh ...

Featured Historic Landmarks, Sites & Buildings

Historic Site of the week

Lübeck Cathedral

Lübeck Cathedral is a large brick-built Lutheran cathedral in Lübeck, Germany and part of the Lübeck UNESCO World Heritage Site. In 1173 Henry the Lion founded the cathedral to serve the Diocese of Lübeck, after the transfer in 1160 of the bishop's seat from Oldenburg in Holstein under bishop Gerold. The then Romanesque cathedral was completed around 1230, but between 1266 and 1335 it was converted into a Gothic-style building with side-aisles raised to the same height as the main aisle.

On the night of Palm Sunday (28–29 March) 1942 a Royal Air Force bombing raid destroyed a fifth of the town centre. Several bombs fell in the area around the church, causing the eastern vault of the quire to collapse and destroying the altar which dated from 1696. A fire from the neighbouring cathedral museum spread to the truss of the cathedral, and around noon on Palm Sunday the towers collapsed. An Arp Schnitger organ was lost in the flames. Nevertheless, a relatively large portion of the internal fittings was saved, including the cross and almost all of the medieval polyptychs. In 1946 a further collapse, of the gable of the north transept, destroyed the vestibule almost completely.

Reconstruction of the cathedral took several decades, as greater priority was given to the rebuilding of the Marienkirche. Work was completed only in 1982.

The cathedral is unique in that at 105 m, it is shorter than the tallest church in the city. This is the consequence of a power struggle between the church and the guilds.

The 17 m crucifix is the work of the Lübeck artist Bernt Notke. It was commissioned by the bishop of Lübeck, Albert II. Krummendiek, and erected in 1477. The carvings which decorate the rood screen are also by Notke.

Since the war, the famous altar of Hans Memling has been in the medieval collection of the St. Annen Museum, but notable polyptychs remain in the cathedral.

In the funeral chapels of the southern aisle are Baroque-era memorials by the Flemish sculptor Thomas Quellinus.

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